I thought this book was super cute! Reading it a bit late / in the summer but it still made me smile!

This was the curtest Santa Claus book I have read in a while. I loved all of it. The magical elements these two dummies that love each other so much. I loved the relationship challenges they had to go through and how their love was there even when they are apart. I am a fan.

I adored this festive fun romp! It was giving The Santa Clause in the best possible way (making me nostalgic for one of my favourite childhood holiday movies) while cleverly exploring the very real struggles of newly married life.

Refreshing, cute and captivating, this is a must read for the holiday season!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to the e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t read the summary of this book before I started reading it. I just saw a Christmas book by Timothy Janovksy and that was enough for me. I assumed it was about two husbands/boyfriends who just wanted to have the most decorated house in their neighborhood.

Turns out I was way off. One of them becomes the new Santa and the other becomes, well, the Merriest Mister. What complicates this even more is that Patrick and Quinn, our Santa and Merriest Mister, are having marriage problems. Some people have kids, some get a dog, but they decide to try and save Christmas to save their relationship.

I had a fun time with this book, as I do with all of Timothy Janovsky’s books. There were some parts of this that I wanted to be expanded on and explored a little more, but a fun holiday read overall!

This is by far Timothy janovsky's strongest book since his first release.

I love a second chance romance and this is exactly how you do an established couple main pairing. This book is interspersed with chapters that are called memories and give us tidbits onto the couple when they first started dating and other big moments of their relationship and so you feel like you're getting a full circle picture of their relationship and not missing out on some of their connection or experiences.

so this is a magical contemporary book where basically this couple is struggling in their marriage and when they accidentally think they murdered Santa they are faced with a choice on whether or not they can become Santa for the night or cancel Christmas. so of course they choose to become Santa and it starts this year long journey for them on figuring out how to rehabilitate their relationship and their love.

I think this was a really fun read and I especially appreciated all of the moments of figuring out how each character can find their own individual happiness and then combine that into a successful relationship. it really felt like each of our main characters was an individual and that they both had hopes and dreams and they also had a lot of love for their partner. Getting to see them figure out how to mesh everything together was really great.

this book is a little goofy but it has a lot of heart and is a really fun holiday read. I really liked it. it's probably like a 4.5 for me.

this is also a closed door romance. Timothy janovsky has written both open and closed door and in my opinion his closed door are better but I know that's a lot of personal preference.

I feel like I'm getting back on solid footing with this author. I loved his debut and his second book and then it kind of fell off the wagon for me. I'm really hoping that he's spending more time creating quality content instead of a quantity of books. I'm still going to be requesting them on netgalley and we'll see if his next reads live up to this one.

The Merriest Misters was such a fun read! Charming, festive, and full of heart—I had a great time with it and would definitely reread

This was like reading a brilliant mixture of all my favorite Christmas movies combined together into one delightful, MM romantic holiday book. Patrick and Quinn find themselves trying to save Christmas (after an unfortunate run-in with Santa) and their relationship. While still being lighthearted and fun holiday based read, I appreciated the inclusion of potential marital strife and how the main characters worked to overcame their stalled emotional and physical connection in their relationship.

What a lovely MM holiday romance!! This felt genre busting on so many ways —- it focused on a couple already married but struggling with all that comes with marriage / living together / building a life. The characters were flawed and committed to growth. The ultimate resolution felt bold and somewhat unexpected. I look forward to reading more from this author!

Thank you, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

My reading history of Timothy Janovsky's books:
Never Been Kissed: 4 star
You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince: 5 Star --Currently my favorite of his
New Adult: DNF

And now Merriest Misters is a DNF.

Given how I enjoyed Matthew Prince so much, I had high (probably too high) expectations for Merriest Misters. Marriage in trouble is also not a trope I'm fond of. Without providing spoilers, the characters actions and the heavy dose of miscommunication was the nail in the coffin for me with this novel. I did not buy the fact that these two were in love and while Matthew Prince was more light-heart and cliche Christmas vibes, I think that book's Christmas vibes worked better. This book's Christmas spirit felt a bit jarring/clashing with the more serious conversations of the marriage in trouble.

This has a slight fantasy element for me which isn't my genre so I didn't love this but it was also a good novel about partners finding themselves back to each other

Timothy Janovsky is so brave in his writing. I loved his take on a queer holiday romance and the emotional growth his characters have

Christmas reads are my absolute favorite and this did not disappoint. The story flowed well and I enjoyed the character growth!

I don't usually pick up holiday books (I think I requested this one for a reading challenge about holidays or winter scenes) and it was also my first Timothy Janovsky (not for any reason other than I just hadn't, despite purchasing others, gotten to them yet!) so when I finally slid into this book as part of a different reading challenge I was pleasantly surprised -- there's a lot more depth to it than you'd think just from the blurbs and the marketing and also... I don't really like Christmas (oops).

Patrick and Quinn are two young men who've thrust themselves into all the standards of cishet relationships, pushed on by the pressure of their parents and the society that tells us what we need to be and what milestones we need to hit that as queer people it doesn't really work the same! But here they are, married, not communicating to each other, on the brink of needing SOME kind of change when suddenly... Santa is real, and Santa is passed out on their carpet due to an incident with a frying pan, but SOMEBODY has to be Santa and save Christmas!!

But couched in that whirlwind (new job offer?) is a relationship teetering into dissolution or rekindling, and a story that's about communication and learning to grow with someone instead of next to them, to find out what your partner wants and needs instead of assuming and doing gestures, and despite my lack of caring about Christmas as a whole (sorry!) I liked what this story was when it came to the hard growth of these men in their complicated family situations and how the trauma of that has informed their own marriage.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin for the eARC in exchange for review!

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. The way the two main characters worked together felt like this book was geared more toward young adults. Their romance felt forced and unreal.

I really loved this wholesome Christmas romance. Watching our MMCs learn and adapt to communicate was beautiful.

It definitely gave me some warm and fuzzies!

This book was clearly riffing on The Santa Clause but in a way that was so incredibly tender and heartfelt. Quinn and Patrick have been married for several rocky months, and they pass each other like ships in the night — between repairs for their money-pit of a starter home and late hours at work, they hardly see each other. Then Patrick brains Santa Claus with a frying pan and has to become the new Santa, and the two are whisked off to the North Pole where they discover all kinds of truths about themselves — how to embrace their passions and interests, and how to let go of the things in their old lives that no longer serve them. There was plenty of Christmasy hot cocoa drinking and snowball fights and North Pole goodness to make this a solid Christmas romance, but the best part of the whole book was the self-discovery the two Merriest Misters do as they figure out how to bring joy and love to all aspects of their life.

Full disclosure: I am an absolute fan of Timothy Janovsky, and I am wary of marriage in trouble romances. I was tense (in a good way) while reading this book. Patrick and Quinn fell into their current lives by following the respectable expectations of college, jobs, marriage and home. We immediately see the cracks in the picture perfect image they present to the world and to each other. Which makes it absolutely brilliant that they get swept into a literal picture perfect world of the North Pole as Patrick takes on the role of Santa Claus for a year. I was so worried that Patrick and Quiin would fall into the role of Santa Claus and the Merriest Misters with the same inertia as they did into there previous life. And they did, kind of, for a bit. But where this story really shines is how Patrick and Quinn come into their own and the ways in which they allow these new versions of themselves to merge into the latest version of their relationship. The ending was absolutely perfect for the couple.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Timothy Janovsky for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own. 💖

I absolutely love Timothy Janovsky, and this one did not disappoint! I have to be honest, I was a little concerned with a storyline similar to The Santa Claus. That's a Christmas classic, and I wasn't sure how a queer retelling would go. But yall. This was hands down my favorite holiday read!

I loved both Patrick and Quinn so much, and was rooting for them from the start! Yes, there was use of the miscommunication trope, and yes we are given a third act breakup. That should tell you you just how much I loved this one! Even with both I still enjoyed every page! We got a front row seat to the slow unraveling of their marriage, and because of the dual POV, we're able to see both partners perspective on the same events. This was one of the best parts for me. Like an actual marriage, both parties were feeling entirely different things. Both were hurting. And no one would sit down and talk! 🤣

The backdrop of The North Pole and Santa's workshop was just the best! I loved seeing them settle into their new lives, and come together in the times they needed to especially. Patrick and Quinn never fell out of love, they just stopped communicating.

I loved every bit of the book and can not WAIT for his next holiday novel! 😍

This was such a sweet holiday romance that didn’t feel wrong to read outside of the holidays. Quinn and Patrick’s relationship felt so sweet and realistic. The miscommunication trope was troping hard in this book at times though. If they had just talked to each other and voiced their concerns instead of pushing them off, they could have made some better decisions before their problems started sabotaging the magic of the North Pole. I definitely recommend this book to people who love romance novels with a bit of magic added in.

3.5*
A cute holiday romance I will admit I don’t care for the miscommunication trope though which ended up bringing the rating down for me as it was a pretty big issue in this.